Presiding as the Chairman

Much of this conflict over the significance of the new post of "European President" is little more than language based. "President" in English is definitively the top donkey however you look at it, whereas in French "président" translates as both "president" and "chairman", and a chairman at best will have the casting vote when it comes to making decisions. They've even been saying in the English-language media that the French and Germans among others consider the role more as that of a "Chairman" than as a "President", when for reasons just stated this amounts to the same thing.
So why not just call the new top honcho the "Chairman of the European Union"? Not grand enough I suppose.

Herman Van Rompuy, new EU "supremo"